Pros

Cons

Expensive.
Heavy and bulky.
Can't swap straps.
Difficult to pair with iPhones.
No cellular support for Sprint and T-Mobile.

Bottom Line

The LG Watch Sport has a built-in cellular modem to stand apart from your smartphone, but that doesn't help it stand apart from a crowd of smartwatches that offer more for your money.

23 May 2017Victoria Song

The ultimate smartwatch is one that doesn't require a phone. The LG Watch Sport ($349) makes a fair attempt to stand on its own with a built-in cellular modem, and somewhat lives up to its name with accurate fitness tracking abilities. But its gargantuan size makes it impractical for everyday wear, and it's going up against the Apple Watch Series 2, which offers a lot more bang for your buck. We're still not sold on Android Wear, even in its latest iteration, but the Asus Zenwatch 3 and the forthcoming Huawei Watch 2 are more compelling alternatives.

Bigger Isn't Better

The Watch Sport is hard to miss. Its stainless steel case measures 1.8 by 2.0 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty 3.2 ounces. The plastic OLED display measures 1.4 inches around, with a resolution of 480-by-480 for 348 pixels per inch (ppi). Both the LG Watch Style and the Huawei Watch 2 have 1.2-inch displays with lower resolutions—299ppi and 326ppi respectively. The Style is feather-light by comparison at 1.6 ounces, while the Watch 2 is a reasonable 2.1 ounces.

The Sport is also similar in design to the Tizen-based Samsung Gear S3. The S3 Frontier version features a slightly smaller 1.3-inch AMOLED touch screen, and weighs less at 2.2 ounces.

Aesthetically, there's no getting around the fact that the Sport is built more for utility than fashion. It's got a fairly minimalistic round face and a rubber strap you can't swap out. That's fine for working out, but it means the Sport isn't a watch for every occasion. Thankfully, you do get two color options: Dark Blue and Titanium. I tested the Titanium version, pictured throughout this review.

Left to right: LG Watch Style, Huawei Watch 2, LG Watch Sport

Large displays often result in a poor fit for women or those with petite wrists. That's true of the Sport, but it's a problem for men too. I had multiple male coworkers with varying wrist sizes try it on, and each had a difficult time finding a good fit. That's due to the awkward case shape near the lugs. You end up with a fairly wide gap between the strap and your wrist, so you're forced to choose a hole that might be a bit too snug. You can go one hole larger, but you end up with the watch sliding around your arm or rubbing against your wrist bone. Another annoyance is that the loop often slips off and fails to keep the strap in place.

There are three controls on the right side of the watch. The top button is at the two o'clock position, the dial is at three o'clock, and the bottom button is at four o'clock. The top button is a shortcut to the Google Fit Workout app, while the bottom button can be customized to your liking. You use the dial to scroll through menus and view notifications. If you hold it down, you'll bring up Google Assistant. Press it once and you'll access a list of all your downloaded apps.

Not Quite Standalone

Ostensibly, the reason for the LG Sport's bulk is all the hardware needed to make it as phone-independent as possible. Inside its colossal case, the Sport has a 1.1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, 4GB of storage, and 768MB of RAM. It's also got an accelerometer, an ambient light sensor, a barometer, a 430mAh battery, GPS, a gyroscope, a microphone, a PPG heart rate monitor, and a speaker. For connectivity, the watch features 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, and NFC. It also has a cellular modem, so you can use connect to the internet without using Wi-Fi.

The Watch Sport only works on AT&T, so Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon users are out of luck (a Verizon model was initially planned, but has since been canceled). While you don't have to buy a separate data plan, you do have to pay an extra $10 per month for service that piggybacks on your phone's plan. You can also sync the watch with your so that calls and texts come from the same number.

Battery life is decent, but not spectacular. You can get about a day and a half with typical usage, and it takes a little less than two hours to go from zero percent to a full charge. The downside is that the Sport charges wirelessly through a cradle. It makes for a nice watch stand, but it's a hassle to carry around.

Android Wear 2.0 enables you to download apps to your watch directly, but you still have to pair your phone to get everything set up. This shouldn't be too much of a problem if you're an Android user, but I struggled multiple times trying to pair the LG Sport with the iPhone 7 before it ultimately connected. For more specifics on Android Wear 2.0, see our Huawei Watch 2 review.

If you're connected to a cellular network, you can download apps from Google Play, look things up on the web, make calls, and send text messages, no matter where you are and whether your phone is nearby.

Sending messages or entering text in general requires patience, though. There's a preset list of greetings and replies you can send, or you can type a response out on a tiny keyboard, or give the handwriting option a whirl. The preset options are good in a pinch, but both the keyboard and handwriting feature are cumbersome and fixing mistakes is laborious. Given the choice, I'd rather pull out my phone to send jokes, gifs, and emojis instead of replying directly on the watch.

You can call up friends and family, but speaking into your wrist via speakerphone is a novelty that wears off quickly and lacks privacy. And while it's nice to get directions on Google Maps from your wrist, but it's still much easier to input your destination on your phone. So while the idea of a standalone smartwatch is an intriguing one, it's certainly not a reason to choose the Sport of a less expensive, non-cellular alternative.

Fitness Features

True to its name, the fitness features are solid. The Sport logged 2,131 steps during a one-mile walk on a treadmill at 3.5mph, compared with 2,132 steps logged by the Yamax SW-200 Digi-Walk, a pedometer frequently used in clinical studies. That's a superb difference of just 0.05 percent. The Sport also logged 1,905 steps during a one-mile run at 5mph, compared with the Yamax's 1,961 steps, for a difference of 2.86 percent. Overall, it delivers better performance than you'd expect from a smartwatch.

Results aren't quite as good when it comes to measuring distance. The Sport underreported my walk as 0.85 mile, and overreported my run as 1.17 miles. That might be irksome if you primarily train indoors. But if you prefer walking or running outside, you can circumvent that by logging your sessions through Google Fit Workout or other apps that utilize GPS like RunKeeper.

For heart rate, the Sport is comparable with the Huawei Watch 2 and Fitbit Charge 2 in terms of accuracy, usually within 5-10bpm. The only problem is that there isn't an easy way to view your data while exercising until your entire workout is done. If you use Google Fit Workout, the end summary will tell you your average and maximum heart rates for the entirety of the workout. Alternatively, you can download a Heart Rate app that will let you view it in real time…if you can find one. Searching through the Play store on the watch is finicky, and oftentimes you can't find an app even if you input its exact name.

Accuracy aside, this is another instance where the LG Sport's size got in the way. To avoid it slipping up and down my arm, I had it strapped quite tightly to my wrist and found it uncomfortable. If you're constantly adjusting your smartwatch, it distracts from your workout—the exact opposite of what you want in a fitness wearable.

Comparisons and Conclusions

The LG Watch Sport is a step in the right direction toward a fully standalone smartwatch, but you have to make a lot of sacrifices in style, practicality, and most importantly, comfort. That's a lot to ask for $350, especially since you need to shell an extra $17.50 per month for cellular connectivity. You can get plenty of non-cellular Android Wear watches for less, including the LG Watch Style and the Asus Zenwatch 3, though neither measure up in the fitness tracking department.

For the same price as the Watch Sport, the Samsung Gear S3 gets you many of the same features, better battery life, and the ability to change your straps, at the expense of fewer downloadable apps. iPhone owners, meanwhile, are better off sticking with the Apple Watch, which has more apps and offers a far more polished experience all around. And if you're focused on fitness, go for the Nike+ model.

About the Author

Victoria Song is an analyst on the Hardware team at PCMag. Since graduating from Temple University’s Japan Campus in 2010, she's been found reporting and editing in every corner of the newsroom at The ACCJ Journal, The Japan News, and New York bureau of The Yomiuri Shimbun. In her spare time, she bankrupts herself going to theater, buying expansions to board games, and cleaning out the stacks at The Strand. Someday, she hopes Liverpool FC will win the league, but she isn’t holding her breath.